Training Law Enforcement Officers In The Round Pen

We are about to launch a pilot program that will become significant. Communication, leadership, self control, reading body language, and confidence will be taught in our round pen to local law enforcement officers.

It will be part of a three tiered instructional program. Aside from hands on work in the round pen, participants will learn to understand prey animal body language to use to replace our natural predator body language when speaking with severely traumatized victims and witnesses. Severe trauma often instantly transforms people into behaving like prey animals. The horror that they have been exposed to causes them to recoil from our normal, predator based form of communication. I have previously conducted this session for prosecuting attorneys.

I have used this understanding for over a decade in helping victims get through the legal process and to get them to the point that they can take on the tremendous pressure of testifying.

The last part of the training will be an in depth look at effective means of intervention to help ferret out cases of molestation when the victim is simply afraid to speak.

I have known our Sheriff for years but when i discussed my plans for this program with him yesterday he was more excited than I have ever seen him. He has been exposed to leadership training using the round pen as a model. As a former President of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, he has significant contacts that will allow him to assist in the development of similar training for law enforcement agencies far and wide, should these sessions prove as beneficial as I expect them to be.

I have written very little about the program that we conduct for patients at a local veterans hospital who have PTSD. The program matters--it works--it is no quick and easy cure but it is part of the tools in a tool box that can help recover lives.

This new training program will prove to be even more significant.

In Living Color: The Corolla Off Site Breeding Progam

The loss of genetic diversity has more subtle effects than birth defects and sterility. Colors are lost. This light color has not been seen among the Corollas for decades. There are a few that descend from a Shackleford mare left in the wild with that band, but none in Corolla.

One of the tests of the offsite breeding program is to bring some of that diversity back without altering the the Corolla horse in any way except for restoring that lost diversity. Half Corollas are super horses, but they are not used in the off site breeding program, unless the non Corolla parent is of a strain very closely related to the Corollas. It is wonderful to be able to count on the advice of Dr. Phil Sponenberg in making these breeding decisions.


The non Corollas used in the breeding program are their cousins from Shackleford Island, their close relatives, the Marsh Tackys, and the occasional Choctaw. Only foals that have strong Corolla type will be used for the breeding program, even with this limited amount of non Corolla blood in the program.

This will stave off sterility and will likely restore traits that have been lost.

In short, we want to restore them to what they were while fighting off every effort to "improve" them by breeding modern horses to them. No modern horses will be used in the off site breeding program.

Next year we will have several foals born. Now is the time to let me know if you would like to participate in the offsite breeding program by adopting one of these super horses.

They Killing Me Grave Yard Dead

I always expected to be killed by a horse. It seemed like such an honorable way to die.

Now I fear that I will not live long enough to be killed by a horse.

These two kids are gradually wearing me out. I am going to die from staying up past my bedtime playing music and watching them perform one time too many. But they deserve the attention.

Kaleb works hard with his guitar--much harder than I ever have. He earns every note that he strikes.

A few months ago Ashley had one of the best teenage voices I have ever heard. Now she has one of the best grown women voices that I have ever heard. Were I to make a list it would be:

1. Sarah Carter
2. Emmylou Harris
3. Brittany Howard
4. Linda Ronstadt
5. Ashley.


Of course, they do not hold a gun to my head and tell me to drive--I am a willing accomplice. Tonight I cancelled regular music with my little riders to get some rest. But a little while ago I remembered a good place to go play music on Monday nights.

I expect that I am going to end up making some coffee and looking for my capo tonight.

One Day, When She Is As Old As I Am.....

I hope that Lydia will have a young person around that she can absolutely count on.

That would only be fair.

The Truth Is In There: The Round Pen As a Model For Self Understanding

Natural horsemanship does not merely provide insights and analogies that give rise to parables that have meaning for human understanding. Instead, when conducted properly and thoughtfully, it is a laboratory to directly explain human emotional agony and to provide a guide to getting out of that misery.

In past months I have been working with people who have PTSD simply brushing horses and moving them in the round pen until the horse comes to attach himself to the patient. I am floored at the degree of stress relief this brings to those in the round pen. Our program is now part of the regular protocol for treatment at a local veteran's hospital.

I am working on a training program for law enforcement to use the round pen to enhance communication and leadership skills. I have no doubt that natural horsemanship, specifically round pen work, can impart skills that will reduce the chances of gun fire in hostile encounters.

And understanding the round pen can make one a better parent. We train horses using 51% control and 49% affection. We teach the horse by instantly releasing the pressure the moment the horse begins to respond as we wish.

It is very easy to teach a horse to ignore direction--simply continue the pressure even if the horse complies. The person who constantly keeps pressure on the bit because they do not want the horse to run away trains a horse to do one thing--run away.

The parent who never releases the pressure on a child produces a child who can find no peace. The instant the child responds appropriately every once of pressure must be replaced with a shower of genuine affection.

Absent such instruction the child learns that she is not good enough. That is the first thing that she learns.

The second thing that he learns is that she has no ability to effect her own future. It simply does not matter what she does--be she good, bad or indifferent--the result is the same. She becomes angry and resentful.

What else could be expected?

But there is something worse that should be expected and will be seen. She will become helpless. She will come to view life as a series of random events--good and bad--all completely outside her realm of control.

Why would she work hard to achieve anything? Why would she not choose to drop out and burn out?

Or, she can be taught that work has rewards. She can be taught that he is of value simply because he exists.

She can than understand that everyone around her is of value simply because they exist.

And if you work horses in the round pen, or if you have kids, and everything written above does not make perfect sense to you then you are likely failing, with  both your horses and your children.